1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fishing lures and more specifically to weighted metallic fishing lures which are pulled through the water causing fish to strike them.
More particularly the present invention pertains to a method of making a relatively small metallic fishing lure with an encapsulated internal lead core resulting in said lure having nearly twice the weight as other comparably sized metallic lures and thereby allowing the weighted lure to be cast further out into the water from a boat or shoreline without the need to add familiar lead sinkers to a fishing line.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
There are several types of fishing lures known in the prior art as discussed in detail by Weber in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,917 who describes a jig-type lure; a metal spoon-type lure; and the full-bodied lure of his invention which may be distinguished from the present invention by the type of lure and method of its manufacture.
In Weber's method, the lure components are assembled, placed in a body mold and then injected with plastic material to form the body over its internal components. It appears that injection molding is used as a common method of manufacturing most full-bodied lures, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,396,728 and 4,785,572, although those patents among many others do not specifically claim a method of their manufacturer. They merely claim their mechanical features such as appearance, structure and behavior in the water.
In contrast to full-bodied lures, the lure of the present invention does not require the use of expensive injection molding to encapsulate assembled internal component parts and it does not claim to possess any unique external appearance, structure or behavior in the water. Its major patentable feature is believed to be its density resulting from a unique method by which it is made.
A second type of lure discussed by Weber in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,917, is a jig-type lure which Weber states its most basic form simply consists of a lead weight molded onto the shank of a hook adjacent to the eye of the hook.
However, a typical example of a modern jig-type lure largely used by commercial fishermen today is disclosed by Barnes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,888, wherein Barnes describes an elongated lead body 5 to 6 inches long and about 1 inch wide and weighs about 1 pound. This jig-type lure is particularly well suited to bring up from very deep ocean depths very large fish due to the strength of the lure which is attained by a wire embedded along the internal length of the lead body during the molding process and has an eyelet at one end for connecting to a fishing line and a hook at the other end.
Although the Barnes' "888" patent neither claims nor discloses a method by which his lure is made, he does disclose numerous different patterns of reflecting tape which may be attached to the peripheral surface of the lure's lead body for a purpose of attracting fish by light diffraction when his jig is raised up and down vertically.
In contrast, the lure of the present invention may be classified according to Weber in his "917" patent as a metal spoon-type lure of which many shapes and sizes are used today. Nearly all of these are stamped out of sheet metal and some are painted with various designs, however the problem with all of the currently known metal spoon-type lures is that their weight is limited by the density of the metal from which they are made. Therefore, it is usually necessary to use some type of sinker attached to a fishing line when using metal spoon-type lures to achieve longer casting distances or deeper fishing depth.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method by which an internal lead weight core of various sizes may be encapsulated within a body portion of a metallic fishing lure to increase its weight. This object is achieved in the present invention.